SIGHT AND SOUND: SUBSIDIARY POINTS

070.
Elision is the dropping of a short final vowel before a word
beginning with a vowel; an apostrophe marks the omission: ἀλλ'
ἕξει, (Jn 8:12, for ἀλλὰ ἕξει); ἀπ' ἐμαυτοῦ (Jn 8:28, for από
ἐμαυτοῦ).

Elision is common
in prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs. The prepositions περί and
πρό are not elided. Cf. §918.

071.Crasis is the contraction of a final vowel
or diphthong with an initial vowel or diphthong; a coronis (᾽ =
apostrophe in form) is placed over the contracted syllable: κἂν (Jn
8:14, for καὶ ἂν); κἀγὼ (Jn 1:31, 33, for καὶ ἐγώ). Cf. you're (for
you are).

Crasis is not common in the
New Testament. Other examples: τοὔνομα (for τὸ ὄνομα); κἀκεῖ (for
καὶ ἐκεῖ). Cf. §919.

072.Accent. Most Greek words are written
with accents. The accents are the acute ( ´
), the grave ( ` ), and the circumflex ( ῀
). Thus, λαμβάνει τὸν δοῦλον; ἀκούω τῆς φωνῆς. The accent stands
over the vowel of the accented syllable, and in a diphthong over
the second vowel.

072.1 In English accent means a stress of the voice.
Also to the native Greeks of today it means simply stress of voice.
Originally, however, accents indicated the tone or pitch of the
voice in pronouncing syllables.

072.2 The
last syllable of a word is called the ultima; the next to
the last, the penult; and the one before the penult, the
antepenult. Only the last three syllables of a word may
take an accent.

0720.3 An accented antepenult must therefore take the
acute: ἄνθρωπος. But the antepenult may not be accented if the
ultima is long.

0720.4 An
accented penult takes the circumflex if it is long and the
ultima is short: ἦλθεν. Otherwise it takes the acute:
κόσμῳ.

0720.5 An accented ultima must take the acute if it is
short; if it is long it may take either the acute or the
circumflex: θεός; ἀρχῇ; ζωή.

0720.6 The grave ( ` ) may
stand only on the ultima. An acute accent falling on the ultima,
when an enclitic (s. §074) or mark of punctuation does not follow,
is changed to grave: πρὸς τὸν θεόν.

073.Proclitics are monosyllabic words which are linked with
the following word in pronunciation, with the result that they have
no accent of their own.

074.Enclitics are words (dissyllabic at
most) which are joined with the preceding word in
pronunciation, with the result that they may lose their
own accent. If permitted, the accent is thrown back on the
preceding word; some words, consequently, may have two accents.

075. As indicated in §072.1, accents no longer assist
in pronunciation (except in the arbitrary indication of stress), so
that the chief function of the accent in modern texts is to assist
in distinguishing between words (e.g. τίς who?, τὶς anyone) .
Accents, of course, are determined by modern editors (accents were
not regularly employed in texts until after the fifth century
A.D.). The proficient student of Greek will want to learn to handle
accent correctly, but the beginner need not concern himself beyond
the observation of accent in placing stress and in those instances
where accent is a clue to identification. Accent will be treated
where relevant in the lessons.

076.Punctuation. Greek manuscripts of the New Testament books
were written for the most part without benefit of punctuation or
even separation of words (s. Bl-D §16). The system of punctuation
(along with accents and breathing) is provided by modern editors.
However, some peculiarities of punctuation are old. The period,
comma, dash and parenthesis are employed as in English. The
semicolon and colon are indicated by a point above the line (
· ), the mark of interrogation by ( ; ) (= our
semicolon).

077. In
reading Greek, the attempt should be made to connect words in
phrases. Accent and punctuation may serve as guides. Examples of
shorter phrases:

(Jn
8:12)

ἐγώ εἰμι

τὸ ϕῶς τοῦ κόσμου

ὁ ἀκολουθῶν μοι

οὐ μὴ περιπατήσῃ

ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ

(8:13)

ἡ μαρτυρία σου

οὐκ ἔστιν

(8:14)

κἂν ἐγὼ μαρτυρῶ

περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ

(8:15)

κατὰ τὴν σάρκα

ἐγὼ οὐ κρίνω

When some facility with shorter phrasing has
been achieved, shorter word groups may be linked together in longer
phrases or clauses (utilizing the punctuation marks):